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Get help buying coverage and managing renewals, with less paperwork for your team. Create your account and submit an insurance request online.
Insurance Buying Guide for Climate Businesses
Before signing a lease, installing a pilot, or raising money against a hardware rollout, separate software or advisory service from equipment you own, customer property, and work performed at a site. Ask the broker to compare each exposure with proposed forms. Flood and business-interruption answers vary by program and wording; do not infer them from climate-risk maps.
Which Insurance Should You Consider for Climate?
Consider commercial property, builders risk, equipment breakdown, product liability, professional errors and omissions (E&O), and workers’ compensation. Start with the coverages tied to your day-to-day operations, then use the situations and buying questions below to compare your options.
Commercial Property Insurance for Climate
You own equipment or inventory at a site, or need to understand flood protection for a business building or its contents.
NFIP business flood policies describe direct flood damage to building and contents, with separate limits and deductibles, and do not cover financial loss caused by business interruption. This is NFIP-specific; ask separately about any private policy.2
Is this quote NFIP or private flood coverage, which building and contents are covered, and what limits, deductibles, exclusions, and interruption terms apply?Builders Risk Insurance for Climate
You or a customer has a project under construction, with equipment or materials installed before handover.
For a construction project, ask who owns materials at each stage, which locations and values appear in the proposed property terms, and when responsibility transfers at testing or handover.1
Who insures the work and materials at each stage, and when do coverage and responsibility shift at testing, commissioning, or handover?Equipment Breakdown Insurance for Climate
A battery, inverter, sensor network, or other machine failure could stop a pilot or facility.
Machinery-breakdown terms may address specified malfunctions, which commercial property may exclude. Ask about the named equipment and whether resulting income or extra expense is included.1
Which named equipment and failure causes are addressed, and do terms include resulting damage, temporary equipment, or income loss?Product Liability Insurance for Climate
Your product or installation could cause bodily injury or damage to another party’s property.
CGL products and completed-operations terms can address bodily injury or property damage. Ask separately about carbon-credit performance, environmental remediation, and contractual guarantees.1
How do terms describe our product, installation work, territories, and environmental exclusions, and what performance obligations remain outside the form?Professional Liability (E&O) Insurance for Climate
Customers rely on your forecasts, measurements, engineering, or climate-risk recommendations.
Ask how the quote treats errors in the professional service and the limits of any service description. Ask the insurer how professional-liability wording treats the described services and exclusions.1
Are our model outputs, engineering, data, and recommendations within the described service, and what contract liabilities or exclusions should we compare?Workers’ Compensation Insurance for Climate
You hire staff for field work, installation, or maintenance at customer sites.
California workers compensation and employers liability are separate considerations. Check requirements for each state where employees work and compare listed duties and classifications with the actual policy.1
Which states and field duties are listed, how are classifications set, and how does employers-liability wording coordinate with our contracts?
Separate the Service From the Installation
Describe whether you sell software, recommendations, engineering, equipment, installation, or an ongoing operating service. A customer may rely on a forecast while also owning a device installed at its site; ask the broker to separate those scenarios in the application and identify where each is addressed.1
For project materials and installed systems, identify the owner before, during, and after commissioning. Ask who insures equipment during construction, testing, and handover. A builders-risk or project-specific answer remains a quote question unless the proposed form specifies property and stages.1
When Flood or Downtime Drives the Decision
For NFIP business coverage, compare building and contents needs separately. FloodSmart describes separate building and contents limits and deductibles, and excludes financial loss caused by business interruption. Do not extend that NFIP description to private flood or another commercial policy.2
In California, DOI’s COVID-era FAQ describes business-interruption coverage as optional and says it typically requires covered direct physical property loss. For a current quote, check the form’s trigger, waiting period, insured property, and exclusions.3
Use Local Site Information Carefully
For a San Francisco waterfront pilot, Port resilience story maps provide localized planning studies and subarea profiles for coastal flooding, sea-level rise, and other hazards. Use them to ask about site and continuity planning, not to predict an insured loss or determine policy eligibility.4
Provide the address, equipment list, project stage, service contract, and recovery dependencies with your quote request. Ask for written answers on property, equipment breakdown, interruption, and liability terms rather than relying on a risk map.2,1,3
Which Providers Should You Compare for Climate?
Commercial Property Insurance Providers for Climate
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Builders Risk Insurance Providers for Climate
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Equipment Breakdown Insurance Providers for Climate
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Product Liability Insurance Providers for Climate
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Professional Liability (E&O) Insurance Providers for Climate
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Workers’ Compensation Insurance Providers for Climate
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Common Questions About Insurance for Climate
Will an NFIP business policy pay for downtime after a flood?
FloodSmart says NFIP business coverage addresses direct flood damage to building and contents, with separate limits and deductibles. It excludes financial losses caused by business interruption.2
Read the Full AnswerCan a San Francisco waterfront map tell us whether a site is insurable?
Use the Port’s localized planning profiles to prepare site questions; they do not predict a specific insured loss or determine eligibility. Ask insurers about current terms for the actual address.4
Read the Full AnswerSources and Further Reading for Climate
Get Help With Insurance Buying and Renewals.
Get help buying coverage and managing renewals, with less paperwork for your team. Create your account and submit an insurance request online.